Of Pawns and Kings
by SourSugarQuills
Summary: Ianto Jones was a Pawn, that's all he was in this sadistic game of chess.
1. The Pawn

**Of Pawns and Kings**

**By SSQ**

He was a pawn, that's all he was in this sadistic game of chess. Once upon a time he thought he was a King, playing on the Captain's heartstrings to make things go his way. Yet his queen had fallen to the Captain's (The black king's) unfair amount of knights-After all, Jack had three where as Ianto had none, leaving him but a pawn in the King's court, the chess game lost.

Yet was the game really his to play? He wondered, unknowing. He didn't think so now he was just a pawn. He had Tosh and Gwen's place mixed up as well, just as he once thought he was King. No, Tosh was a bishop, faith unwavering, and Gwen was a mere pawn as well. She was nothing, the newest addition, yet that was the funny thing about pawns: They always want to be a queen.

_(Ianto had wanted to be Jack's Queen, Jack's right hand everything, the piece that could always protect Jack because it could go anywhere, more than anything. More than having Lisa back, in fact. Because Lisa was unfixable, and he didn't love her as much as he wanted to make sure his last piece didn't topple over like all the others had, and Jack…Jack was everything. Jack was summer and light and love and everything and nothing all at once.)_

He wanted to be a queen, but he'll never say a thing. What's so bad about being a pawn, after all? Pawns are dependable, reliable. (Neither Ianto nor Gwen ever were a true pawn, Jack would never sacrifice them without a second thought. )

Gwen didn't, though. She wanted to be Queen and didn't make it a secret; She wanted the freedom to move wherever she wants and to always have Jack to come back to; Jack to play the fairytale King in the story she made up called her life.

Yet she didn't know Jack already had a queen-Or, Ianto supposed, a Doctor-Who he will always protect, (Because that was the most precious piece after all, the one that could go anywhere in Time and Space and save so many lives.) And always come back to, because that's Jack's Queen, and the King always loves his Queen.

And that fact more than anything else squeezed at Ianto's heart, and he wished so hard that there would be two hearts instead of one, that Jack would love him.

He guessed it was a pawn thing, always loving his (Marvelous, wonderful,) King, even if he would never love him back. So he played the part of dutiful pawn, always moving one square forward and eliminating possible threats as often as he could. (Which wasn't often, most things had the sense to stay from being killed by something so demeaning as _(Ianto) _a pawn.)

Finally, once Jack was back from running after his (_Doctor,)_ Queen, Jack doesn't care so much about his _(Doctor)_ Queen. Something inside Ianto swells, and somehow he know he's reached the end of the chessboard.

He was dependable, (Reliable, unlike the Doctor,) and now he was the one who Jack would protect the most, because (somehow) Ianto was the most important piece on the chessboard. Ianto (For now) was one of a kind. (though so easily replaced.)

Yet he still essentially felt like a pawn, and nothing really change. Silly white pieces underestimate him; they think they're safe because like a harmless little pawn. So he conquers every threat he can, and he feels unbeatable.

Gwen nears the end of the chessboard, and suddenly it didn't feel so much as though Gwen were a black pawn as compared to the white Queen. _(The white Queen and the black Queen in a dangerous dance; taunting each other to take that final move and take them down.)_

Though when Tosh (The ever-so-faithful Bishop) and Owen (the sarcastic knight who hid his feelings behind armor,) toppled and fell, Ianto cursed himself for letting his view of the chessboard fall, for letting something so petty as his feelings dictate who was the enemy and who was not rather than the chessboard its self. Now there were only three left in their number, and Ianto lost a dear friend though Jack lost something more akin to a daughter.

Ianto was a pawn-made queen, and only after so very few moves being of what he dreamed of ded a supposedly unstoppable player find the chess game of Torchwood. They were called the 456 and they played the game. They played the game so difficultly that Ianto, caught up in the chess game, felt immortal.

_(So silly, he felt unstoppable. He shouldn't have felt so, he shouldn've remembered that if the game was lost the only one who would be there was Jack; Jack the king who was always the same and Jack's (Doctor) Queen, because he lived forever (or nearly) too.)_

Ianto Didn't live forever, and only after he finally won (_Jack's Heart)_ his place of queen, the white King took his piece in manic glee.

But that was alright. He was always a better pawn than a queen, anyways, (_Just the teaboy. Cleans up messes, no questions asked. Just a teaboy.)_

He was, after all, just (the teaboy) a pawn.

A useless little (Once-Queen) pawn who served his purpose and was discarded. And Ianto…Was alright with that. Because for a moment, no matter how brief, he kept Jack safe.


	2. The King

**Of Pawns and Kings**

_AN: A sequel created by request. I hope you enjoy it! _

**Part Two:**

**The King (Once Upon A Time)**

_By SSQ_

Once upon a time, Ianto was a king. White and shining, the other player always took the first move. Of course, he didn't think that Ianto was a king when he first met him; he thought that he was just a pawn. A pawn from the crumbling remains of Torchwood One's chessboard, unharmed and so brightly white. He was intrigued, amazed by such a pawn that somehow managed to do so much, be so reliable.

He was the King, and he took the (so impossibly beautiful, (_How did a pawn get that beautiful?)_ pawn into his ranks, a black pawn the other became. But he was blinded, so happy about finally being King, finally having his own games of chess, that he couldn't see the chessboard quite right. He couldn't see that the pawn was a king, plotting. He didn't see until a few weeks after he found Gwen, his (_police liaison-) _pawn. (Or was she a rook? He didn't know, it was so impossible to tell.)

That was when they found the Queen in the basement, and he could see the chessboard clearly. A knight,_ (_Doctor _Owen Harper, thankyouverymuch,)_ A bishop, (_Toshiko Sato, she's our tech genius.) _and a pawn (_Police liaison, Gwen Cooper.)_ was all it took for the Queen _(Lisa-Cyberman.)_ to topple and the game to fall into checkmate. _(Ianto was still alive, because King's never die, remember?)_

Jack didn't know what to think about the once-king, now-pawn. (_Teaboy, as Owen liked to say.)_ He was the perfect (_butler-cold, unfeeling Ianto-)_ pawn, slowly moving forward and doing as needed. (_Knight step in the wrong place? Ianto, get that blowfish, won't you?) _Nothing different, just the same. Reliable. Dependant. Good. As if he were gaining back Jack's trust. _(Which of course he did-"Think about it, lots of things you can do with a stopwatch, sir." "I can think of a few…")_

Then his doctor came back, and he ran, abandoning his team and all the chess games in the world because this was _his doctor,_ and he had waited for so very long. But he was thrown into another chess game; one that was an uphill battle from the start.

No pieces were familiar in this game, just his doctor. He was just a knight to the Doctor's King and Martha Jones's Queen. (Well, sort of Queen; the Doctor never got over the loss of his wonderful Rose. Martha was just a pawn, somehow a queen at the end.) The three of them against the (Chess) Master, (_The Master,)_in the longest, most hopeless game he'd ever played.

He missed his team dreadfully, The Bishop, The Knight, and pawns he always used to protect and fight alongside. (Tosh, Owen, Ianto, Gwen…the games of chess that were actually winnable.)

When they (somehow) managed to win the game, topple all the Master's players and declare checkmate, he ran back to them and promised himself that he'd never let go. _(He saw them die, murdered infront of him on the Valiant.) _

He ran back to his quaint little chessboard in Cardiff, and watched as two of his pieces fell. A bishop and a knight. (Toshiko, Owen-His friends; something akin to children._ (Idiotic children who never could see each other's feelings,)_ His brother killed them, (_Well, Owen a second time.)_ and left him to be but a king with just a pawn and a queen, so easily checkmated.

But before all that, he saw his pawn turn Queen. (Ianto, so cool and collected when he returned…_Don't you see I'm not going to leave? I love you…don't die…)_

His pawn became Queen just to be snatched away once more. A new player, titled the 456 took him, toppled his piece just as soon as he became a queen. And Jack, of course, was left to pick up the beautiful shards and fragments of him.

Once piece left. A pawn. _(Gwen.)_ He couldn't let her die, not her too…The last piece of the original chess team. (_Not even the chessboard remained, the 456 made that explode, too.)_ So he left. He left earth and all the chess games there, he ran into the stars and began new games of chess, (always trying to forget the ones where he lost…to forget the times with a wonderful pawn who became Queen.) no matter if her were a knight, a bishop, a king, a queen, a rook, or a pawn.

After all, some of the best people were pawns.

_(He never really forgot, throughout his entire life.)_

One final chess game, and he was a pawn. (It took him all his life to realize he was a pawn in the end, always was one.) A pawn who finally, finally reached the end of the chessboard. A king (_His doctor,)_ a pawn, _(Martha,)_ and a bishop _(Sweet old nurse Hame,) _were there as he finally toppled in the most wonderful chess game of all against Death itself.

And when he woke up, there was no more chess. Just a wonderful once-King, once-Queen, once-pawn, man named Ianto Jones who even throughout all the centuries, he never forgot.

_Fin._


End file.
